Back to School – Time to Review Your Safety Plans

August 12, 2015 by

Back to School

School districts around the country will be welcoming students back to classes. For most children it will seem like a fresh start, with new clothes, lockers and teachers. A new beginning can also mean an opportunity to start things off right; that should especially include emergency planning.

Back to school time is the perfect time to review the changing dynamics of a schools environment. New faces of staff, students and parents could mean a change in threat potential within the school’s population. Reviewing emergency procedures can help ensure they meet the needs of the school’s current situation.

Back to school is the time to review your plans.

Back to school time? Time to review your emergency plans!

Identify Risks

Last year’s school shooting at Reynolds High School in Oregon shows how important it is that schools are prepared to deal with new and emerging types of threats. Regular risk assessments help to identify new potential hazards and ways to mitigate them. Such assessments can also ensure resources are being directed effectively.

Create/Edit Emergency Plans

You can’t know if your emergency procedures are adequate unless you take the time to do a thorough review. A decision may be reached to keep the plan the same, edit it to address the current risks, or end a plan. Whether changes are made or not everything should be well documented, as you may have to defend your action later. This would be especially true when ending coverage of any potential threat.

Practice Life-Saving Steps

Everyone in an emergency has a role to play, which begins with keeping themselves safe. Thus, a school should be training all of its personnel in basic life-saving steps. This can be done in several, free-to-inexpensive ways.  Scenario training is a simple, research-based and effective way to test an individual’s capabilities to make life-saving decisions in the first thirty seconds of a crisis. This can be as involved as the use of a training DVD series like Safe Topics, or as simple as thinking of a scenario, then asking a staff member, “What would you do?” Safe Havens has created The Window of Life to help guide people through these life-saving steps.

Practice Your Plans

Once you have developed a plan, you should find out whether it works or not BEFORE you have to use it.  You do this by conducting exercises.  These can be very involved, but they don’t have to be.  Identify the plan you want to test, and think of a simple, realistic scenario that requires using the plan.  Gather all the stakeholders; first responders, staff, parents, etc., and talk through what it would like like to implement the plan.  This low-intensity process can reveal the plan’s strengths and weaknesses, and can serve as the basis for amending the plan.

Back to school time is an exciting time of the year.  However, don’t let the excitement make you forget to review your safety plans.  Identify your risks, create or edit your plans, make sure your people know their life-saving steps, and practice your plans.  This will help make sure everyone is around to enjoy the next back to school time.

 

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Students Released for not having Measles Vaccines

February 7, 2015 by

Measles Vaccine

Officials at Palm Desert High School in Palm Springs announced January 28 that 66 students from the school were ordered to remain at home through February 9.  They have to confirm they received immunization or show proof of resistance to measles.  This came after a student was sent home January 26 due to a suspected case of the disease. The district initiated the precautionary measure as part of an ongoing measles outbreak.
measles vaccine, mitigation

Masks, along with the measles vaccine, are a good mitigation against the Measles virus.

Measles Outbreak

In January 2015, 102 people from 14 states were reported to have measles. These cases are part of a large, multi-state outbreak linked to an amusement park in California. The CDC has issued a Health Advisory for this outbreak .

There were a record number of measles cases in the U.S. during 2014.  644 cases from 27 states were reported to the CDC. This is the greatest number of cases since measles were eliminated in the U.S. in 2000.

In light of this outbreak, the use of the measles vaccine for children has become a hot-button issue.

Impact on Schools

It is not our intent to tell anyone whether to vaccinate their child or not.  That is a parent’s decision.  But parents should know where public schools stand.

Each state has their own laws regarding statutory requirements for vaccinations.  For example, Indiana’s laws require vaccinations against various diseases such as Hepatitis B, Measles-Mumps-Rubella (MMR), and polio, among others.

Each state also spells out the various exemptions to these requirements.  Parents should research these exemptions in their states if they feel they should be exempt.

It is important to remember that schools have relatively large populations of children together in a relatively small area.  This increases the probability that any disease can be spread easily from one child to another.  With measles, a disease we had thought had been eradicated, children are at increased risk, and thus the use of the measles vaccine is very important.

Schools need to keep track of the vaccine status, and use other mitigation practices to prevent the disease from spreading.  The use of masks, frequent hand-washing, thorough cleaning practices by the custodians, can all help prevent the spread of any communicable disease.  These practices should be outlined in the school’s pandemic disease plan.

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Possible Gang Involvement in Edged Weapon Attack

January 26, 2015 by

Edged Weapon Attack

Griffith Middle School in Los Angeles was the scene of an edged weapon attack on Friday, January 23.  The alleged attacker was 13 years old, while his victim was a 14-year-old student at Garfield High School.  The victim died from his wounds.

The victim had stopped by the middle school to see some friends when the attacker stabbed him with a pair of scissors.  The victim was taken to the hospital where he was pronounced dead.

The police alleged that the 13-year-old attacker was a gang member.  When he approached the victim, he asked the victim where he was from, which police say is a tactic used by gangs to challenge a suspected rival.

Lessons Learned for Schools

This story has two areas of concern: edged weapons attacks and gang proliferation.

As seen in the story above, an edged weapon attack can involve things other than knives.  School staff need training on weapons screening, which can provide an indication that someone has a weapon on them and improve a staff member’s situational awareness.  The first question people have is, “If they are going to use scissors, how can anyone tell?”

The answer is in the behavior of the individual.  The behavior of a person who is going to attack someone is different than the behavior of a normal person.  Weapons screening training will help a person learn to recognize the signs.

Schools can also help prevent edged weapon attacks by restricting access to edged weapons while in schools.  After thousands of school security audits across the country, analysts frequently find unsecured, accessible edged weapons that students or adults can use in an edged weapon attack.

edged weapon attack

A knife in a school desk drawer that can be used in an edged weapon attack.

The attacker being a possible gang member brings in a whole new level to situational awareness.  Schools should be able to identify those students who are showing that they are affiliated with a gang.  Their manner of dress and appearance can provide clues to gang affiliation, as can specific behaviors.  Staff members should be trained in these indicators.  Numerous websites are devoted to this, although these cannot replace actual training.

An excellent way to start is to reach out to local law enforcement.  They may have people with training and experience.

In no way is this meant as a condemnation of the school for this incident.  The fault lay solely on the alleged attacker.  However, edged weapon attacks can be prevented and it’s up to schools to do what they can to prevent them.

Filed Under: Stephen Satterly Tagged With: , , , , , , ,
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